How to connect PolyBase to Sage X3 Cloud

PolyBase for SQL Server allows you to query external data by using the same Transact-SQL syntax used to query a database table. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Sage X3 Cloud, you get access to your Sage X3 Cloud data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live Sage X3 Cloud data using T-SQL queries.

NOTE: PolyBase is only available on SQL Server 19 and above.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Sage X3 Cloud data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to Sage X3 Cloud, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Sage X3 Cloud and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. And with PolyBase, you can also join SQL Server data with Sage X3 Cloud data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to Sage X3 Cloud

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs. To create an external data source in SQL Server using PolyBase, configure a System DSN (CData Sage X3 Cloud Sys is created automatically).

Sage X3 Cloud uses the OAuth 2.0 Client Credentials flow, and an X-API-Key is also required for API access. Set AuthScheme to OAuth and specify the following connection properties:

• URL: The base URL of your Sage X3 Cloud instance.
• OAuthAccessTokenUrl: The OAuth token endpoint (e.g., https://your-auth-domain/oauth/token).
• OAuthClientId: Your OAuth application client ID.
• OAuthClientSecret: Your OAuth application client secret.
• Audience: The API audience value for the token request.
• XAPIKey: The X-API-Key provided by your Sage X3 Cloud administrator.
• Folder: The Sage X3 folder name (e.g., SEED). This folder is used as the default schema.
• Folders (optional): A comma-separated list of Sage X3 folders (e.g., SEED,PERF). Each folder is exposed as a separate schema, so you can query across folders with the Schema.Table syntax.

The driver obtains an access token with the Client Credentials flow and sends it with the X-API-Key on every API request. With InitiateOAuth set to GETANDREFRESH (the default), the driver acquires and refreshes the token automatically.

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to Sage X3 Cloud properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for Sage X3 Cloud.

Create an External Data Source for Sage X3 Cloud Data

After configuring the connection, you need to create a master encryption key and a credential database for the external data source.

Creating a Master Encryption Key

Execute the following SQL command to create a new master key, 'ENCRYPTION,' to encrypt the credentials for the external data source.

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password';

Creating a Credential Database

Execute the following SQL command to create credentials for the external data source connected to Sage X3 Cloud data.

NOTE: Since Sage X3 Cloud does not require a User or Password to authenticate, you may use whatever values you wish for IDENTITY and SECRET.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL sagex3cloud_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'username', SECRET = 'password';

Create an External Data Source for Sage X3 Cloud

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE SQL command to create an external data source for Sage X3 Cloud with PolyBase:

• Set the LOCATION parameter , using the DSN and credentials configured earlier.

For Sage X3 Cloud, set SERVERNAME to the URL or address for your server (e.g. 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' for local servers; the remote URL for remote servers). Leave PORT empty. PUSHDOWN is set to ON by default, meaning the ODBC Driver can leverage server-side processing for complex queries.

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE cdata_sagex3cloud_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Sage X3 Cloud Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = sagex3cloud_creds
);

Create External Tables for Sage X3 Cloud

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to Sage X3 Cloud data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for Sage X3 Cloud. You can refer to the Tables tab of the DSN Configuration Wizard to see the table definition.

Sample CREATE TABLE Statement

The statement to create an external table based on a Sage X3 Cloud BPCUSTOMER would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE BPCUSTOMER(
  BPCNUM [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  BPCNAM [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='BPCUSTOMER',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_sagex3cloud_source
);

Having created external tables for Sage X3 Cloud in your SQL Server instance, you are now able to query local and remote data simultaneously. Thanks to built-in query processing in the CData ODBC Driver, you know that as much query processing as possible is being pushed to Sage X3 Cloud, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for Sage X3 Cloud and start working with live Sage X3 Cloud data alongside your SQL Server data today.